Two Robbers Spared Prison

MIDDLETOWN — Two robbers with different stories about what led them to commit their crimes came away from Superior Court Monday with similar sentences.

Nicholas Torok, a 19-year-old Tennessee man facing at least 10 years in prison for robbing a Westbrook bank last January and Jerome Hawkins,46, charged with holding up a Middletown convenience store in April, won't be going to prison.

In separate hearings, defense attorneys for both men reeled off snapshots of the days and hours leading up to the crimes.

Torok, diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the age of 14, stopped taking his medication when he left his mother's home in Georgia and moved in with his father, a Tennessee police officer, months before the robbery.

Still dressed in the uniform he wore for work at Wendy's fast-food restaurant, Torok headed north one day in search of a great aunt he knew in Connecticut. Unable to find her, he walked into the New Haven Savings Bank on Boston Post Road on Jan. 16, 2003, and handed a teller a note saying he had a gun and a bomb and ``was not afraid to use them,'' State's Attorney Timothy J. Liston said.

The note was written on the back of Torok's pay stub from Wendy's.

Torok fled with about $1,900, but was stopped a short time later by a state trooper and arrested.

Brian S. Carlow, Torok's public defender, called the robbery ``an incredibly ridiculous and stupid decision'' that arose ``out of a serious mental illness.''

Carlow argued against Liston's recommended sentence of at least 10 years in prison, a less severe punishment than the maximum of 25 years he faced for the first-degree robbery charge. Carlow said the year Torok spent in jail was enough punishment and what he needed was to be back down south with his mother, a registered nurse, who could help him get psychological care.

Judge Robert L. Holzberg said the crime, Torok's first criminal offense, appeared to be ``out of character'' for him. Holzberg agreed to send Torok south. He sentenced Torok to four years' probation under the supervision of Georgia law enforcement authorities. Torok must also receive mental health treatment and continue to take his medication, Holzberg said.

Torok's mother, Sonya Liebendorfer, who drove from Columbus, Ga., to attend the hearing, said she planned to take her son back to her home.

``With me, he'll get what he needs,'' she said.

In Hawkins' case, it wasn't the drug he stopped taking that yielded trouble. It was the drugs he couldn't get enough of that led to his crime, his attorney said.

Robbing the DB Mart in Middletown was a desperate act meant to fund the cocaine dealer who helped fuel a two-day drug binge Hawkins had before the April 26 robbery, said Christopher James, Hawkins' public defender. The dealer threatened that ``things were going to be over for'' Hawkins if the dealer wasn't paid, James said.

So Hawkins walked into the store wearing a bed sheet over his head and demanded money, Assistant State's Attorney Russell Zentner said. Hawkins wasn't armed but the clerk in the store thought he was. ``It scared the hell out of her,'' Zentner said.

Hawkins, a mason and mechanic for more than 30 years, had just lost his job. That, along with a series of deaths in the family and an impending divorce, pushed him toward depression, James said.

A pastor told the judge Hawkins tried to get help from the church.

``I don't think I've had a client who's been more remorseful of what he did,'' James said. ``He wishes he never put himself in that position.''

An emotional Hawkins told the judge simply, ``I was a fool.''

Holzberg didn't accept prosecutors' request to sentence Hawkins to at least four years in prison on a first-degree robbery charge. Instead, he ordered him to seek treatment for drug abuse in a 45-day inpatient program and to receive random drug screening.

``You lost your family, you lost your job and you lost your children,'' Holzberg said. ``I think you are keenly aware of how drugs can ruin your life.'' The judge also cited Hawkins' steady employment record and lack of a criminal past as factors that kept him out of prison.

Holzberg warned both men to stay out of trouble. He urged Hawkins to stay clean and implored Torok to keep taking his medication.

Carlow called Holzberg's decision ``the right thing'' for Torok.

``It's not easy sometimes, I think, for judges to do this,'' Carlow said. ``Now it's up to Nick.''